I have CorelDRAW X7 and its associated apps and I'm fluent with it. However, something went wrong with the program on one of my computers and when I contacted Corel they were only interested in trying to convince me to buy a 2020 subscription. I'm now retired and cannot justify the annual or monthly subscription fee to be able to keep using Corel. I do want to keep using it for all my private design work and for the free work I do for community groups, but i cannot afford $69 a month for that.
I started with CorelDRAW version 3 and have paid for upgrades all the way through to X7. I had to get Windows 10 reinstalled when my hard disk crashed and X7 did not resinstall properly - well it did, but there are authentication issues. I have all my previous lenience numbers, but Corel ar enot interested in helping me get X7 going again - they want me to change to 2020 and spend my pension income on a subscription instead of food etc.
Having become a CorelDRAW expert I would like to keep using it, but as a retired person I can no longer afford the upgrades, let alone the monthly fee. After being a loyal Corel customer for decades I am appalled at how easily they discard their long-term, loyal customers when those customers go out of business or retire.
Corel, you have lost my word-of-mouth support... well, lot the positive stories i used to tell
If any of you feel the same way, try Inkscape. I did and love it! It is professional and its free - even easier or more intuitive to use than Corel. Try it!
James Elliott BSc(WA) GradDipCompSt(Murdoch JP
I agree with this completely. I will distinguish it's not a money issue for me, but I can state categorically I don't know what the new features are nor do I need them. I could care less. I too have corel files since version 3. I upgraded from X5 to X7 only to have something that worked in Windows 10. I preferred X5. The content exchange and other 'new' features are often just a way to monetize things that should be built in.What's worse, X7 is now fairly crippled because the content exchange for it is abandoned. This is the paradigm of software that demand customers pay a steady stream of revenue for things they don't need.
I agree with you jzelliott, My first CorelDraw I bought was Version 4 and am now using X7. I have only ever used it for studying and hobbies. I love CorelDraw, which I think I may have been using for thirty years now, but think Corel is a horrible company. Why on earth can't they make it cheaper for seniors. Also why have they made it impossible to use their old graphic files, that I originally bought on CD.
As far as opening old files in newer versions most of this is due to required changes so they could add new support for features. Complex curves, transparency support for N color Spaces come to mind.
With 2019 the entire suite was recoded to simplify cross platform coding.
As far as the purchase options go I'm not sure how profitable Corel or the software sales for any application is anymore. I did the upgrade protection years ago on a couple licenses but have discontinued upgrading secondary systems.
As fas as I can tell 2019 and newer is required for complex PDF export. 2018 will do 99.5% of everything else. If you cut vinyl or simple images the version you need will be dictated by OS compatibility.